What if you were told the most influential Christian spoke against God’s word. It would be earth shattering, almost too profound to believe. So who is considered “the most influential Christian”. Jack Wellman, who is the Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas probably sums up the Christian mindset best by stating “…Paul was the greatest Christian and missionary that the world has ever known and that many today are still being brought to saving faith by his writings…”1. Sure, why not, Paul wrote almost half of the New Testament, 13 out of 27 books. However, Paul, who was considered a Pharisee of Pharisees2, talked against Torah, God’s word. Let’s do a comparison between the Tanakh (OT) and the New Testament (NT), to see what I mean:

1 Corinthians 7:8 Now to the single people and the widows I say that it is fine if they remain unmarried like me; 1 Corinthians 7:26-27,32-35

*Note: Being married or single; when we study out these scriptures Paul isn’t saying God wants us to be single, but it appears that Paul needs to infuse his opinion here. So riddle me this, “at what point does any prophet or preacher ever counter God’s mandate with his own opinion in scripture?”. The very act of doing this minimizes God’s word. Image if your boss at work told you to tell the employees something very important so you do it but after you state your boss’s wishes you follow it up with your own counter opinion. For example, “The boss says there will be no overtime, but you better believe it if I have to stay late I will be putting in for overtime” how much credibility would this carry in your business. We also have to remember that Paul’s “opinion” which is almost given the weight of God’s very own words in the Christian community has inspired celibacy in many Christian sects for its Priests. This has always perplexed me. Maybe I am crazy but how does one get advice on marriage and family from a man who has never been married or had a family? Maybe that’s why on the other side of the aisle, there are some in the Jewish community that say Rabbis should be married3. So let us look at the Torah not Paul and in doing so we see that the patriarchs and other great Torah Champions were married. Are we not to turn to these men as our examples?

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. Romans 11:25, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4

Paul taught that the ushering in of Christianity made the Torah irrelevant:

Romans 3:19-21Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Romans 6:14For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 7:6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Romans 10:4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

Galatians 2:16Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Galatians 3:24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

He also polarizes the new religion having one choose between Jesus or Torah.

Conclusion:

If you research Paul and his misrepresentation of the Torah on the internet you will find an Army of commentators telling us what Paul really meant. Interestingly their arguments are verified as if no one holds the definitive of what Paul is really saying, just a bunch of speculation and theory. Even the apostle Peter admits Paul is hard to understand, (2 Peter 3:16). Let me ask you this, “if a political candidate was so misunderstood would the people even allow him on the ballet?” yet since Paul, for some unknown reason, is so critical to the Christian religion many have abandon their common sense. As a parting note let us just remember that the Christian messiah said “… let your “Yes” be simply “Yes” and your “No” simply “No,” so that you won’t fall under condemnation.” (James 5:12).